FARMING ‘IN CRISIS’ AS FODDER SHORTAGE HITS HARD

Countless local farmers will be forced out of the industry or may have to rely on ‘Farm Assist’ if the current bad weather continues and the Government doesn’t move to arrest the decline in agriculture.

That’s the view of Galbally dairy farmer and IFA member, Jim Fitzgerald, who this week described the Government’s action in debarring new entrants to the REPS scheme and a 30% cut in Area Aid as ‘a total disgrace’.

Mr Fitzgerald also outlined the current fodder crisis facing farmers due to the inclement weather over the past months.

“Many farmers in the Galtee Valley, taking in an area from Mitchelstown to Tipperary Town and well into county Limerick, are in dire straits at present,” he told The Avondhu.

“Some have been forced to graze fields that were set aside for second cut silage, and I know of at least two or three who never even got a first cut out of the ground,” the Galbally dairy farmer continued. He went on to describe how dairy cows were being housed several weeks ahead of time while the collapse in cattle prices was putting even extra pressure on a the hard pressed agricultural sector.

“Farmers getting just 20c a litre, and in some cases as low as 14c due to high cell count problems, are losing up to 7c per litre on what it costs to produce milk,” Jim Fitzgerald claimed.

The local dairy farmer admitted that there was a prospect of higher milk prices next year due to changes in the world market but felt that countless farmers won’t be in a position to hold out that long.

He further claimed that the various EU subsidies were now going into a ‘black hole’ as the farming community fights to stay in existence.

“Many will be forced to de – stock or go out of business altogether and this will have serious repercussions for the whole economy,” Mr Fitzgerald concluded.

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